The Saeima Supported the Increase of VAT on Russian Press and Books 0 10

This evening, during the consideration of the budget package, deputies engaged in a debate over the "democratic" proposal to deprive newspapers, magazines published in Russian, as well as books in Russian and paid electronic publications in Russian, of the reduced VAT rate of 5%. The bill proposes to apply a rate of 21% to these publications, meaning that starting next year, the VAT rate on Russian literature and periodicals will increase by as much as 16%! Deputies Svetlana Chulkova ("Stability!") and Maya Armaneva ("Latvia First") introduced their amendments, effectively canceling such discrimination. The mentioned parliamentarians called from the Saeima podium not to divide business by language, and even more so, not to mix language with taxes. Deputy Kristaps Kristopans ("Latvia First") spoke in the same vein, pointing out that the desire to allegedly earn 1 million euros from the increased VAT rate should not split society! His party mate Edmunds Zivtiņš suggested that the Constitutional Court might also disapprove of such tax discrimination based on language.

However, the majority of parliamentarians held a different position and rejected attempts to prevent "punishing" Russian newspapers and books with increased taxes. Thus, if the president signs this bill, which is likely, starting from January 1 of next year, the VAT rate on Russian publications and literature will be 21%.

Interestingly, during the voting on the amendments by Chulkova and Armaneva, some deputies from the ruling coalition abstained - these were deputies from the Union of Greens and Farmers and individual deputies from the Progressive party.